The Company Men (2010)

This drama about corporate downsizing lives up to its trailer, that is to say, mildly diverting, but a bit disappointing. We're supposed to feel sorry for Ben Affleck's Bobby, fired after an outstanding early golf game, but he is clearly in over his head, with his club membership, Porsche, big house, and no savings. John Wells (best known for producing and writing on The West Wing and ER, among many, now a writer on the outstanding Showtime series Shameless) makes his feature directing debut with his own script, about the conglomerate run by Tommy Lee Jones' (Oscar nominated for JFK (1991) and In the Valley of Elah (2007) and won for The Fugitive (1993) ("What I want ... is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse..."); I also liked and liked him in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), both Men in Black (1997, 2002), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), and No Country for Old Men (2007)) Gene and Craig T. Nelson's (I know he's had a long a fruitful career, but my favorite is his ongoing role as patriarch Zeek Braverman in the TV series Parenthood) Jim, with Maria Bello (I wrote about her in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) as Sally doing the dirty work of firing Bobby, Chris Cooper (my faves: This Boy's Life (1993), American Beauty (1999), Adaptation (2002) which won him an Oscar, Seabiscuit (2003), Married Life (2007), and more), and many others. We're supposed to think that Gene is a good guy, since he feels bad for the others, but his actions don't really set him that far apart from Jim, who is unapologetic about doing what's best for the company, its stockholders, and himself. Kevin Costner (favorites: The Untouchables (1987), Bull Durham (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), Tin Cup (1996), The Upside of Anger (2005)), Rosemarie DeWitt (terrific in United States of Tara, Rachel Getting Married, and more), and Eamonn Walker (Cadillac Records, The Messenger) are all good in their roles.

Despite the best efforts of Affleck (I wrote about him in The Town) and the rest of the cast and lovely location shots in the metro Boston area, from Marblehead and Wellesley to Milton and Quincy, this didn't grab us. Not everyone is in agreement. The New York Film Critics gave Wells the Best Debut Director award and Roger Ebert gave it a thumb up with an interesting commentary. However, the imdb message board, filled with spoilers, has quite a discussion going on a negative lead ("Did anyone else hate this movie...") and rottentomatoes averages only 64% for critics and 60% for audiences.